Davante Lewis Takes Money From the Businesses He Regulates on the PSC
After vowing to not accept campaign donations from companies he'd regulate, and tarring his Democrat opponent for having done so, Lewis accepted $8,000 from two solar power companies
Solar power companies cannot be corrupted. Nor windmill makers either, of course, or industrial battery producers. Everyone knows it!
Equity-driven stakeholders delivering planet-saving, unpolluting, profitless and nearly-free, super-reliable energy have nothing but pure intentions. Only altruistic, they are incorruptible, incapable of sin.
Saving the Planet is the name of their game, as thankless and underappreciated as that calling may be.
Free from any of the corruptibilities of profit-motive, or greed, or opportunism, or political manipulation, not only are those working in renewables pure of heart, so too are their allies, their friends in the Louisiana Democrat Party.
Only The Good People are the Democrats and only the Democrats are The Good People.
All of this goes without saying; to doubt it is to sin, to “spread disinformation.”
Too pre-occupied with Saving The Planet, neither renewable energy companies nor Democrats ever disinform; The Good People, they are.
All of them.
So imagine our surprise when we learned that Davante Lewis accepted campaign contributions from the very companies he’d be regulating on the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
This is important, as Grist points out:
From Grist:
Despite the overwhelming support that Lewis received from environmental groups and the constituents of his district, the young politician has his work cut out for him. His success hinges on his ability to convince the other members of the commission to radically transform the way that it regulates utilities in the state. The five-member body has historically leaned against the development of renewables, but with Boissiere out and Republican commissioner Craig Greene signaling an interest in increasing competition in the state’s energy market, the odds may be in Lewis’ favor. That’s why clean energy advocates are hopeful that his win will usher a new era of clean energy in Louisiana.
Having established that this PSC chair was a highly-valued prize, and despite Lewis’ promises not to accept money from the businesses he regulates on the PSC:
Davante Lewis received $8,000 from two solar power companies.
** as reported by DeSmog and writer Sara Sneath who studied campaign finance reports
Only a handful of months ago, this disgusting blemish disqualified PSC incumbent Lambert Boissiere, Democrat, from any consideration for re-election. Davante feels very strongly about this!!!
From his campaign website, among so many other times he emphasized this:
As a candidate, I refuse to accept donations from industries regulated by the PSC, and as a Commissioner, I will fight for new ethics rules to break the grip of corporate donors and push the Commission to begin serving the people of Louisiana instead.
Is Davante telling us the PSC won’t be regulating the wind and solar panel farms being erected all over the state and in the Gulf of Mexico?
Has Davante Lewis disinformed us, committing that most awful sin? Or is it simply that Davante has already betrayed his promises.
Lewis benefitted from more than $1.1MM from a PAC associated with the Environmental Defense Fund, which aligns in a way indistinguishable from the renewable energy industry: the solar panel makers and installers, the wind blade makers, the battery storage producers. It’s all the same money!
We tend to see Mr Lewis by the company he keeps: recall that The Good People are also The Socialist Party and Abortionists whom Mr Lewis was pleased to feature on his campaign website:
The Democratic Socialists of America / Baton Rouge Chapter endorsed Lewis:
“Erase the Board” also endorsed Mr Lewis:
As did Climate Cabinet:
Think of us as a climate campaign staffer - at scale. We deliver local climate talking points, messaging, policy solutions, and incumbent voting records for any district in the US.
Through early, proactive outreach, strategic engagement, and accountability campaigns - we're ensuring that a just, job-creating clean energy transition is a priority for decisionmakers at the state and local level.
And Forum for Equality:
The BEC credits and extends its gratitude to the news-gathering group DeSmog and their writer Sara Sneath. They raise no issue with Mr Lewis accepting money from the industries he regulates - and promotes. To our delight, their beef is with the Louisiana Democrat Party and their head, Katie Bernhardt, who redirected campaign funds to incumbent Lambert Boissiere, whom they taint as “fossil fuel-friendly.”
A bit more from their story:
Longtime Louisiana Democratic strategist Lynda Woolard, who worked on Lewis’s campaign, said the Party should never have taken money from known bad actors like Entergy. “It’s particularly suspicious when you’re in a cycle with a Public Service Commission race and the person who wins that race is going to have power to regulate Entergy,” she said.
After endorsing Davante Lewis in the state’s latest Public Service Commission election, Louisiana Democratic Party leaders accepted $90,000 from the utilities overseen by the commission, ultimately throwing the party’s weight behind Lewis’s pro-industry opponent.
Louisiana Democratic Party leaders are accused of funneling thousands of dollars from utility companies to the campaign of a fossil fuel–friendly candidate who ran for reelection on the state’s utility regulatory committee.
Some Louisiana Democrats are frustrated that the Party accepted utility donations, which they say are egregious considering the state’s vulnerability to climate change.
“It’s completely baffling that the Louisiana Democratic Party says to hell with the future,” Lewis said. “This raises for me some serious questions about industry donations and campaign donations.”
If this played out as Mr Lewis and his allies tell it, the state party failed, miserably so, too. Lewis beat the incumbent, fellow Democrat Lambert Boissiere, in a landslide.
Davante is right; this raises some serious questions. It doesn’t seem copasetic for any of these utility companies to donate to any of the PSC races.
But where would any ban against this type of contribution stop? This is sticky stuff, frankly, and our purpose is not to argue election reform options but to call out Davante Lewis for having broken his own pledge: he’s accepted money from companies he’s now regulating.
Also from entities so identical to the renewables industry as to be indistinguishable, with interests fully aligned with individual renewable companies.
NextEra - read: Florida Power & Light - the renewable entity, donated $50,000…
Back to the DeSmog story:
NextEra Energy, a power production company that donated $50,000 to the Party and $17,500 directly to Boissiere, has plans to develop a small solar project in Louisiana. But the company’s only current asset in the state is a natural gas drilling facility near Shreveport. Last year, NextEra signed an agreement to supply natural gas for Venture Global’s LNG export project in Plaquemines Parish, which is expected to begin operating in 2024. NextEra did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
NextEra has not shied away from shady political dealings in the past. The company was implicated in a ghost candidate scheme in Florida that ousted a climate advocate from state office. Entergy, which donated $10,000 to the Party and $20,000 directly to Boissiere, has fought past efforts to incentivize solar energy and used paid actors to feign support for a natural gas power plant in New Orleans. Entergy executives gave another $9,000 to the Party and $4,500 directly to Boissiere, according to campaign finance reports. Boissiere did not respond to requests to comment on this story.
CenterPoint Energy, a natural gas distributor in Louisiana, gave $10,000 to the Louisiana Democratic Party and $5,000 to Boissiere.
Is Lewis complaining he wasn’t offered the same sort of money by the party, fungible money, though the money was initially oil-money?
Incredibly:
The Party never reached out to offer the same sort of in-kind donations to Lewis, he said. Campaign finance reports show that Lewis did not receive any in-kind donations from the Party or money from utility companies. However, he did receive $8,000 from two solar companies and a $5,000 donation from the Environmental Defense Action Fund, an environmental advocacy group.
Accepting $8,000 from solar companies is accepting money from businesses the PSC regulates. Let’s be clear.
“Lewis did not receive any … money from utility companies. However, he did receive $8,000 from two solar companies….”
DeSmog and Sara Sneath
(See the Democrat Party campaign finance documents here. Lewis’ documents are below.)
Feeling like we’d just been brought a free dessert, the Democrat Party in-fighting goes deeper:
Kathy Hurst, a Democratic State Central Committee representative from Lafayette, said Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Katie Bernhardt is ultimately responsible for accepting utility company and fossil fuel firm donations and for overriding the executive committee’s endorsement of Lewis. “The donation from Entergy was just money funneled in so that she could try to help sabotage Davante Lewis. For what reason, I don’t know.”
Bernhardt is becoming an untouchable:
Bernhardt, who did not return a request for comment, is the president of an oil and gas company that she took over after her father died and has a history of supporting candidates with ties to the fossil fuel industry. [Empire Energy Corporation of Lafayette, LA.]
Davante has chimed in on this, of course, and wants Bernhardt gone:
From WAFB reporting on the self-induced shredding of the state Democrat Party right now:
“I think we have lost focus of what our initiative should be which is to mobilize voters around the issues that we know are important to Louisianans. Anybody that was even flirting with the idea of running for such a high office owes the party the respect to step aside,” said Davante Lewis (D).
And deeper still, they don’t like her TV ad teasing a run for governor, even suggesting she might be trying “to appeal to a more conservative social Democrat:”
Post-Scriptum:
Out-of-state money made a massive difference in this race. Lewis will beg that this has nothing to do with him, but we all know that campaign spending is campaign spending is campaign spending:
And this from Lewis’ own filings:
Various contributors of note or interest:
Lewis reported 16 contributors of $5,000 (excluding himself.) One of them is a Louisiana resident.
One of the out-of-state large givers also coordinated phone banks for Lewis:
Another out-of-state funder at the $5,000 level:
the bec